Aside from the difficulty of finding the right fitting, is there a specific reason I need to connect my clothes washer to the taps via a hose instead of directly via PEX?
I ask because hoses are regarded as a poinit of with a high likely hood of failure. Given PEX and PEX fittings tolerance to bending, freezing, and their ease of rotation around a joint, it seems like PEXing directly into my washer would be preferred vs spending $100+ on fittings, valves and hoses to do it the traditional way.
My thought was to T off a supply line and use two elbows to ensure flexibility in all directions. After the 'T', I'd have 2.5 feet of PEX that I won't strap down to allow flex in the 'y' and 'z' directions, and then an elbow and another 2.5 feet before the shutoff valve to allow flex in the 'x' and 'z':
Fittings
If it is okay to connect directly, is it okay to use a plastic elbow? (the male connection on my clothes washer is plastic) such as the sea tech one pictured below, or should I use brass only?
Best Answer
All though I am not sure if this is a code enforcement issue, the one issue I see is the flexibility of the hoses to allow the machine to "wobble" or "jump" when out of balance. Therefore not breaking the pipe or elbow, or slipping off the pipe at the connection point.